Name: Our Most Challenging Jobs and More┃Learn American English Pronunciation On the Go
Uploaded: 2025-07-26T18:26:38.000Z
Duration: 27 min 19 s
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Present continuous

Gerund

Today, I'm sitting down with my husband, David, and we're just talking about regular old life things.

And as we discuss what's going on with us, we'll pick out the phrasal verbs, the idioms, and any interesting vocabulary that comes up, and we'll discuss them.

If you need help understanding what's being said, you can get a free copy of the transcript.

Just visit rachelsenglish.com slash podcast and look for this episode.

David, so glad to have you here with me today.

Going to ask you some questions, going to just see what phrasal verbs, idioms, interesting vocabulary pop up as we have an everyday casual conversation.

Okay, let me start by asking you a question.

Can you describe the most challenging job you've ever had?

So challenging and rewarding often go hand in hand.

That's certainly the case for me with this job.

This was working at a high school in North Philadelphia, and that area of the city is really economically depressed.

What does that mean, economically depressed?

Means that the median income would be at the low end of the spectrum.

Does it say anything about job opportunity as well, would you say?

In the sense that there are few good jobs readily available in that area.

It's an area that tends to be violent, that has some drug activity in it.

So working in a high school in that area meant working with kids who were really survivors, kids who had a lot of challenges in front of them.

They, on a daily basis, challenged me to think about what I was doing with my life.

They, you know, it's a hard place to live.

So it was a mix of meeting with individual kids, supporting staff and teachers in their work.

So a whole mix of counseling related things.

Yeah, really, really tough, but good work.  I was, I was always proud of you for doing that.

I always felt really proud to tell people what you did.

So the preposition that you can use with proud is of.

So keep that in mind when you're using proud.

OK, and Rachel, what would you say the most challenging job you ever had?

Well, I've had such a weird collection of odd jobs because I went to graduate school for opera singing, which meant I didn't come out of graduate school with a full time job.

You know, I had as an artist, I think a lot of artists are in a situation where they are doing work unrelated to what they studied and what they're really passionate about in order to make the money.

So I did get paid to sing, but it was never enough to live on.

I had gigs here and there, but I always had to have other jobs.

And you're always looking for really flexible jobs, you know, a job that you can quit right away if you get a singing job that's not that important.

So as a singer, I think I've had a collection of some interesting odd jobs.

I would say the most challenging job I ever had was as a tutor.

And it was, you know, like you've said, challenging often goes hand in hand with reward.

It's hard, but it's the good kind of hard.

And in this particular case, I was a tutor for a family and I worked mostly with their daughter, and I really liked her.

She had an affinity for math and so do I.

But any time that you are, you know, working for a family in that kind of situation, you are really kind of intimately in the family's space.

And, you know, I worked at their house every day in their dining room or in their kitchen.

And I just, you know, one of the very first times I was there, it might have been my first week, the mom had an event that evening and I was supposed to cook us dinner.

And, you know, she had everything laid out and the fire alarm went off.

I totally burnt like the tortilla or whatever I was trying to heat up.

And their system was hooked up to call the fire department.

They showed up and, you know, they notified her phone and she called me.

But, yeah, it's just, you know, it was it was awesome and I loved it.

But you're also there in that in that family dynamic and just kind of trying to figure out, you know.

How to work within that dynamic when you're totally not a family member.

So I would say that was that was challenging.

Having said that, they were an amazing family, just some of the most generous people you'll you'll ever meet.

And I had a great time getting to know their daughter.

And I actually think I tutored her for three or four years.

You just used an interesting little connector phrase.

So you say that when you've just made a statement and then you want to make a statement that's just a little bit contradictory.

Like I forget what exactly I was saying, but it might have been something like it's hard understanding someone else's family dynamic.

Having said that, they were a great family.

So, you know, obviously, how hard is it when it's a great family?

But yes, having said that is a way to make a statement that somewhat contradicts or could be seen as contradictory to something you've just said.

Qualifies what you just said or clarifies what you just said.

And also another way to do that little, what do you call it, transition would be to say that said.

Exact same meaning used to clarify something you've just said.

OK, what is something that makes you really nervous?

Well, this is interesting because we just talked about jobs.

And I think one thing that makes me really nervous is quitting a job.

And like I said, I've had a lot of odd jobs in my life and I've had to quit a lot of them.

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Our Most Challenging Jobs and More┃Learn American English Pronunciation On the Go

absolutely

incredible

phrase

introvert